


Where the Heart Is

by ChiaRoseKuro



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas, Christmas Presents, Fluff, Gift Exchange, Hatake Kakashi is a Troll, Humor, Laughter, Minor Angst, Multi, Relationship Study, Slice of Life, Snow, Surprises, warmth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:08:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,144
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22067530
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChiaRoseKuro/pseuds/ChiaRoseKuro
Summary: Hatake Kakashi might not be inclined to sentiment, but it’s hard not to think on the years that have passed since he began living with his partners, Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin. It probably doesn’t help that it’s Christmas, too, a time for family and one of the last festivities to round off the year…So maybe it’s inevitable, that sentiment comes knocking on Kakashi’s door. Or maybe he’s being infected by Obito’s and Rin’s overly sentimental personalities—but either way, it’s going to be a day with those he loves. What more can he ask for in the face of that, really?(or: Kakashi trolls, Obito and Rin troll him back, and it all ends up being a Christmas morning spent teasing each other. None of them are complaining, though—and all in all, it’s a Christmas well spent.)
Relationships: Hatake Kakashi & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi/Nohara Rin/Uchiha Obito, Namikaze Minato/Uzumaki Kushina, Uchiha Obito & Uzumaki Naruto, Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 4
Kudos: 31





	Where the Heart Is

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Coalith](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coalith/gifts).



> I would still like to maintain that I am not particularly inclined to fluff, and there's probably a lot more introspective angst-like thoughts in here than strictly necessary - but unless you dislike polyamorous relationships, silly bickering and the occasional heavy moment, you should be fine to proceed ahead. If you do happen to dislike any of the aforementioned things, though, you're best off pressing the 'back' button and sparing yourself the contents of this story. It's meant to be mostly light-hearted, and I'll not ruin it by reading or validating a rude and unwanted comment.
> 
> Special thanks to Augustine for providing the focal character (Kakashi - Naruto briefly appeared, but Temari didn't end up making it), the pairings (KakaObiRin and SasuNaru - though SasuNaru is in its pre-slash stage), the genres (Humor and Fluff), and the word prompts (snow, surprises, warmth and laughter - there's more of an emphasis on the first two, though), and [Sloaners](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beetlebee) for both hosting the event on her private Discord server and organizing the event. This is the last of my Secret Santa stories for 2019 (even though this is posted in 2020), so please enjoy it before we look forward to the new year ahead!

* * *

“Kakashi,” Rin says in a perfectly steady voice, without once looking away from the cutlery she’s arranging on the table, “if you’re shaking the presents to check what’s inside them again, I’m going to strip you naked and stake you out in the backyard.”

“Maa, Rin, isn’t it meant to be the season of giving?” Kakashi pouts, eyes beseeching in a way that’d gotten him out of more trouble than he can keep track of, but it’s all wasted on Rin and her refusal to look at him. He’s a grown man, though, and a little lost eye contact isn’t going to deter him—and he surreptitiously slips the present back beneath the tree even as he says, “Unless you’re planning to donate my clothes to charity. It’s a nice gesture, but I think you should stick to clothes that aren’t on my person.”

“Besides, that’s a bit mean,” Obito pipes up from the front door, in between loud stomps to rid his boots of whatever snow’s stuck to it. “Who’d want to wear something that’s touched _Bakashi_ , after all? They might get infected with an incurable case of stupid.”

“Hmm, you do make a fair point there. Maybe I’ll just stick to the staking then.”

“And waste perfectly good stakes on him? Really?”

“Bullies, the lot of you,” Kakashi sighs gustily, before Obito and Rin can _really_ get into the nitty-gritty of discussing Rin’s terrible, horrible and entirely _unjust_ punishment for his behaviour. “I’m going to find people who appreciate me for who I am, thank you very much.”

“Good luck with that!” Obito cheerfully says, even as Kakashi brushes past him with the dignity of the wrongfully accused.

“And shovel the path while you’re at it, will you? Obito’s already done the driveway,” Rin adds, just before Kakashi affects a sob and slams the door in Obito’s ungrateful, laughing face.

It’s tempting to dredge up a tear or two, just in case they _do_ wander out and check on him—but it’s a dance they’ve done for years, now, and Kakashi finds himself smiling even as he slips his feet into thick snow-boots and laces them up tight. It’s not the shovelling that’s put a smile on his face, not when it’s a thankless task that even makes _Naruto_ whinge nine times out of ten, but…

Kakashi had been on the other side of the world, this time last year, and Christmas had consisted of sweating through every single button-up shirt he’d owned as he contemplated murdering the heat. Jiraiya had taken ill and Kakashi, as his editor, had to personally arrange the publication of his new book in Australia—and when he’d gotten back, it was already past the new year.

Then there’d been old Madara’s health scare the year before, which had leeched all the joy out of Christmas when Obito was so clearly pretending not to worry. Minato’s and Kushina’s accident the year before _that_ , and how it’d been Rin who’d been the pale, silent ghost haunting the house.

Not a single proper Christmas spent in their home since they’d moved in together as newly-minted college graduates, each with their Master diplomas in hand and ready to take the world by storm, and it’d been… unfortunate. Depressing, even, if Kakashi was prone to bouts of icky feelings.

Because he might not be one for festivities, but this was still time spent with Rin and Obito. A few days to rest and recuperate in each other’s company, temporarily free from their responsibilities to genius writers or ill patients or unusual microscopic experiments, and do the things they couldn’t do when their schedules varied so chaotically—like eat meals together, or spend a few moments cuddling.

It’s nice that they’re all successful in their own right, financially secure and happy with their jobs… but there’s moments when Kakashi wonders, just a little. If they had been a little less ambitious, if they had prioritized each other over stability…

But what’s the point in being all sentimental when there’s a path to be shovelled? Kakashi rubs his hands together, contemplates going back inside to get the thickest mittens he owns, and ultimately decides that his fingers will probably still be attached by the time he’s done. Probably.

So, of course, it’s at this moment that the front door slams open and Obito comes barrelling out in a blur of colour and cloth. “Are you _insane?_ ” he hollers, even as he skids to a stop right in front of Kakashi and begins shoving mittens onto Kakashi’s hands. “I know you’re an idiot, but Rin will _still_ have your head if she has to nurse you during the holidays!”

“Maa, it’s just a little bit of snow,” Kakashi hums, “and weren’t you the one who said idiots can’t catch them, anyway?”

“That doesn’t mean you have to _test the hypothesis,_ ” Obito hisses—but his hands are gentler as they wind a scarf around Kakashi’s neck, and he only hesitates a moment before pressing a dry peck to his cheek. “Now get to the shovelling already,” he huffs, drawing back with a few pats to Kakashi’s chest, “and _don’t_ try to pawn it off to Naruto.”

“Pawn what off to me?” a loud voice says right then, and both Kakashi and Obito turn as one towards it. Naruto beams at them from over the fence, smile barely visible around the overlarge scarf and voluminous beanie Kushina’s no doubt forced upon him, and asks hopefully, “Didja need me to do more of your chores again, Kakashi?”

“And encourage him to continue being lazy? Nice try, squirt,” Obito laughs, even as Kakashi tries to shove his hand over Obito’s mouth and nod at Naruto. “Go pester your mother for pocket money,” he says in parting, “or find my cousin if you’re that bored. That kid broods like _nobody’s_ business when you’re not around.”

“Bah, Sasuke’s a grumpy old bastard even when I’m with him,” Naruto replies, furrowing his brow and sticking out his tongue—but he obligingly scrambles away from the fence and trots back inside, no doubt to badger his parents about visiting his best friend.

It’s a little nostalgic, thinking about Naruto’s and Sasuke’s relationship—they’re at the stage in life where they’re forming a somewhat antagonistic rivalry, but there’s none of the drama that’d seen himself and Obito at each other’s throats for all of two years. It’d taken the combined efforts of Rin, Genma and _Gai_ to make them reconcile—

And sometimes… sometimes it still feels like a miracle, that they’re here now. That Rin hadn’t given up on them to become a wandering doctor in some far-flung country, and that Obito’s not selling his soul to law and business in the way Madara had wanted him to. He’s not one for physical affection, not when he manages to _scare_ most people when he lets go of his usual asshole tendencies—but he nudges his hand against Obito’s, and Obito nudges it back without once looking at him.

He’ll never be comfortable with expressing his feelings in the way Rin and Obito are, and maybe others would hate him for it. There’s times when Kakashi regrets it, too, that his father’s close brush with death and the nature of it all made a part of him die too… but he’s here. He has people who insult him without any bite to it and people who’ll hug him even when he freezes in their embrace.

 _Today’s just a day for sentiments, isn’t it?_ Kakashi can’t help thinking a little wryly—but it’s nice, having Obito’s solid presence beside him, and it’s quiet enough that he almost thinks he can hear Obito’s breathing, too.

“How long did it take you to shovel the driveway, anyway?” Kakashi asks, for lack of a better way to break the silence. The shovel’s the first thing Kakashi sees when he opens the shed door, melted snow pooling beneath it, and he leans forward to grab it even as he cheekily adds, “Or did _you_ bribe a fine, upstanding citizen into doing it for you?”

“Well, _I’m_ not the one who keeps hiding in the dog kennel whenever there’s things to be done,” Obito huffs, but there’s a hint of laughter in the crease of his eyes. “Come on, you can’t even claim that Pakkun ate your sense of responsibility.”

“You’re right,” Kakashi loftily replies. “I mean, it’s not like I ever had one to begin with.”

“At least you’re upfront about it,” Obito mutters with a shake of his head, but that hint of laughter’s become a full-blown spark of amusement now.

Sadly, it doesn’t excuse him from shovelling snow off the path—both the footpath just outside their gates _and_ the meandering collection of stones that connect their front gate to the veranda—and Obito lingers, alternating between stamping his feet and rubbing his mitten-clad hands together. Kakashi tries to persuade him back inside, ostentatiously citing the cold and how it might interfere with his boyfriend’s _delicate_ constitution, but Obito only arches a brow and asks whether he can see Naruto lingering by the fence.

He’s not, but he _is_ lingering near the window—and it’s moments like these that Kakashi regrets, just a little, that his partners know him so well. “Maybe Rin needs help preparing lunch?” he offers with a hopeful smile, but Obito whacks him across the head and that, apparently, is that.  
  


* * *

  
There isn’t much sunlight when Kakashi’s done shovelling the worst of the snow off their paths, but it’s not snowing as hard either—and there are, at least, paths discernible to the naked eye now. Naruto had wandered back out to chat with Obito as Kakashi had sweated and toiled throughout the morning, cheerful and unrepentant in light of the shovelling Obito had saved him from, and Kakashi resolves to give a little less when he next asks Naruto to mow the lawn. It’s not like Minato and Kushina don’t give him pocket money aplenty, right? He’s not _bullying_ the kid, like they’ve all seen fit to bully _him_.

But nobody pays any heed to his sighs and sniffles, the most Kakashi dare complains when he can see Rin bustling about through the kitchen window. Rin might be all smiles and good cheer, but Kakashi has _seen_ his girlfriend at work—and her cool professionalism is daunting, but nowhere near as scary as her in a full-blown snit.

Kakashi really, _really_ doesn’t want to get banished to the dog kennel again. He loves his dogs and they adore him right back, but Bull’s drool could probably be used as a biochemical weapon with a few tweaks here and there.

“You sure took your time!” Rin chirps, as Kakashi shakes the snow off his boots and shuffles through the door. “Obito, did he try to make a break for it?”

“Don’t worry, I caught him in time,” Obito reassures Rin, grinning unrepentantly over Kakashi’s loud and immediate noise of protest.

“Lies and slander!” Kakashi cries, turning his face to the wall and letting out a dramatic sniff. “I single-handedly ensured people could safely navigate our front yard, and _this_ is the thanks I get?”

“I had to _tell_ you to shovel that path, Kakashi,” Rin sighs, shaking her head with a half-exasperated, half-fond smile.

“And I could’ve left it there, but I did it out of the goodness of my heart,” Kakashi declares, spinning around and clapping a hand to his chest. “All that effort, and I don’t even get a ‘thank you’?”

“Thanks,” Obito says in the most unconvincingly grateful tone Kakashi’s ever heard in his life, “now get out of the entryway so I can get the hell _in_.”

“And fetch me a roll of paper towels from the cupboard while you’re at it, will you?” Rin calls out, already turning back to the dining-kitchen area with an airy wave. “We’ve just about run out with all the lunch preparations.”

“A slave,” Kakashi bemoans, even as he toes on his house slippers and shuffles over to the cupboard in question. “ _That’s_ why you keep me around—because I’m a free, easy slave.”

“I’ll give you the easy part, but we still need money to feed and clothe you,” Obito snorts, nudging Kakashi’s ribs in passing. “Now come on already, will you? At the rate that you’re going, lunch is going to get cold!”

“Maa, so impatient,” Kakashi chastises Obito mildly—but there had been a hint of _something_ in his voice, and he’s distracted as he fetches the paper towel roll and follows his boyfriend into the dining-kitchen area.

But before he can ponder over the issue for longer, there’s arms slipping around his waist and a kiss being pressed to his cheek. “What’s with the sudden affection?” Kakashi asks, arching a brow and blinking down at the soft smile on Rin’s face. “Not that it’s unwanted or anything like that,” he adds, just in case whatever good mood she’s in dissipates at his words, “but…”

“I can hear you thinking all the way from over here,” Obito calls out from where he’s already seated at the table. “What, can’t Rin give you a kiss when she wants to?”

“Of course not! It’s just—”

“Oh, _please_ don’t bicker,” Rin sighs, but she takes the paper towel roll from Kakashi’s hands and loops her arm in his without once letting her smile slip. “Come on, don’t you guys feel happy?

“It’s _Christmas_ , and we’re all _home_ together,” she adds in a faintly wistful tone, and Kakashi finds his eyes widening before he can stop himself. “Nobody’s ill, nobody’s on a business trip… can’t I be happy that we’re all here for a quiet lunch together?”

Perhaps someone else would voice their thanks, or throw themselves into Rin’s arms with tears streaming down their faces—but Kakashi’s neither emotionally functional nor Gai in disguise, so all he says is a neutral, “I thought you would’ve wanted to invite everyone over to eat, if you wanted a true Christmas experience.”

“Oh, that’s dinner at the Uchiha’s tonight,” Rin replies without batting a lash, even as Obito grumbles and Kakashi’s eyebrows inch up his forehead. “Minato-sensei’s going to be there, you know,” she tells Obito, “and I’ve heard that a few other people wrangled invitations too, so it won’t be that dull!”

“But I’ll still have to deal with my _cousins_ ,” Obito groans—and everyone can say what they like about Kakashi, but Obito’s _definitely_ got him beat in the dramatic department. “Seriously, Rin, have you ever _met_ Shisui or Sasuke?”

“Suck it up, you big babies,” Rin laughs—though not unkindly—and guides Kakashi over to the dining table. “Now open your presents and let’s get to eating, alright?”

There’s a moment when Kakashi thinks he’s heard wrong, because Rin’s rabidly insistent on keeping with traditions in ways that even _Obito_ doesn’t quite understand—but there’s a present at his usual seat, and it’s the one he’d been surreptitiously shaking before Rin had kicked him out. It hadn’t made much of a sound and was, in fact, the smallest of all the presents beneath the tree, but…

“You’re going to let me open it?” Kakashi asks Rin, fingers fiddling with the neat bow tied atop it.

“Well, I don’t want you to _eat_ it,” Rin laughs, sitting down at her plate, “and I know how curious you get about your presents. I’m going to wait until tomorrow, and Obito’s already opened his—”

Which is true enough—it’s a rather hefty voucher for their local book stores, and he’s exclaiming over it with the sort of fervour that indicates he’ll be blind, deaf and dumb to everything else for the next little while.

“—so now it’s your turn,” Rin continues with a smile.

And with that rather generous gesture… well, who’s Kakashi to pass on the opportunity? He does his best to keep the wrapping paper scraps to a minimum, mindful of the plates and cutlery on the table, but when he’s torn it all away and revealed its contents…

“See, I _told_ you Bakashi wouldn’t like it,” Obito says, as though from a great distance. “Why’d you go and purchase a locket for him?”

But it’s not just an empty locket, plain beyond the almost delicate imprint of his name. It’s small, sitting comfortably in his palm as he glances down at it, but there’s the faintest sliver of something _not_ silver peeking out—and Kakashi’s not even aware he’s opened the clasp until he’s staring down at a picture.

More specifically, it’s a picture of the three of them standing in front of their house, and it’s one he faintly remembers posing for. _Maybe we’ll move out someday,_ Rin had told him then, _but it’s the first house we bought with **our** money._

It’d sounded silly and overly sentimental, then, but with Rin’s and Obito’s and even his own partially-covered face smiling back at him…

“You…” Rin pipes up almost _hesitantly_ from his right. “You like it, right? It’s not—too girly or anything?”

Kakashi doesn’t look at her until he’s blinked a few times and cleared his throat as softly as he can—but when he does, taking in her uncertain expression, Kakashi shakes his head and murmurs in a faintly hoarse voice, “It’s nice. I—thanks, Rin.”

“Kakashi, are you actually expressing _emotions_ right now?” Obito asks, eyebrows almost disappearing off his forehead with how high they’re raised.

It’d be tempting to say something light and teasing back—but Kakashi shrugs a shoulder instead, picking up his cutlery as he says, “Yeah, I suppose I am.”

Because he might deflect and joke around most of the time, defusing situations with an ill-timed quip that turns everyone’s attention away from anything too heavy—but Rin had remembered that photo. Obito had likely conspired with her to buy the locket and crop the picture so it’d sit right inside it, but they’d _both_ remembered.

They’d both felt that heartache from being unable to spend their Christmases together over the past few years, and now…

Kakashi slips the locket over his neck, closing the lid so he can tuck it beneath his scarf and jumper, and smiles at them both before saying, “Weren’t we meant to eat this before it gets cold?”

But even as they both jolt a little in place and begin digging in, rolling their eyes at his obvious attempt to change the topic and lambasting him for trying to act cool, Kakashi feels the weight of that locket against his chest. No matter how many Christmases they’ll spend apart or together, no matter if they move out and buy another place to live in—he has that reminder, of their happiness and youth, and it’s a warm thought that stays with him all throughout lunch and well into the afternoon.

**Author's Note:**

> For further author notes and other things related to this fic, feel free to check out my [blog](https://chiarosekuro.wordpress.com/). Alternately, potential prompts and other sorts of inspiration can be found on my [Tumblr](https://chroku-n.tumblr.com/) or [Twitter](https://twitter.com/chroku_n/) if that tickles your fancy instead - or, if you'd like your own shiny new oneshot, you can request one from me [here](https://chiarosekuro.wordpress.com/commissions/).


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